HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Four days after watching Rory McIlroy claim the Masters title while he settled for second place, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler demonstrated his championship resilience with an opening-round 68 at the RBC Heritage.
The reigning world No. 1 navigated the challenges of Harbour Town Golf Links on Thursday, posting a 3-under round despite encountering early trouble that would have derailed lesser players.
"I feel like I did some good stuff out there," said Scheffler after his round. "Conditions were tough late in the day. Yeah, I did a lot of good things. Would have liked to have had a better start, but outside of that, I felt like I executed pretty well."
That rocky start came immediately when Scheffler's opening tee shot found trouble, sailing out of bounds on the first hole. However, the two-time Masters champion showed his mental fortitude by salvaging a bogey with an 11-foot putt.
"It was looking like it was going to hit those trees, and I guess it flew right through them and then hit path and went out of bounds," he said. "Thumbs up for the start. It was a good bogey."
The opening hole mishap highlighted Scheffler's struggles off the tee throughout the round, where he ranked 68th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. However, his renowned short game proved to be the equalizer, helping him mount a steady comeback.
Scheffler responded to the early setback with three consecutive birdies on holes 3, 5, and 6, all coming courtesy of short birdie putts. A wayward tee shot into the bunker on the par-3 seventh led to another bogey, but he bounced back with two additional birdies to complete his round.
The 68 left Scheffler five shots behind first-round leader Ludvig Åberg, who posted an impressive 63 to take early control of the fourth Signature Event of the season.
Scheffler's ability to quickly transition from the intensity of Augusta National to the precision demands of Harbour Town reflects what he calls his "religious process" for approaching tournaments.
"Yeah, I was pleased," said Scheffler when asked about his first impressions of the newly restored Harbour Town course. "When you look at a place like this, if you had one of the restoration guys come in, typically what they do is they kind of widen things, they take out some trees, they make the greens a little bit bigger. When we heard this golf course was going to get renovated, I think that was a fear of ours because it's a special and unique place in the sense of you have to control your ball."
The restoration work, spearheaded by Davis Love III, maintained the course's character while making subtle improvements. Scheffler praised the approach taken by Love, who has experienced success at Harbour Town throughout his career.
"When I got here and was looking at the yardage book to see the changes they made to the course, I had to do a double-take; I'm like, 'Did I get the right yardage book?' This thing doesn't even look any different," Scheffler explained. "I think Davis has a great understanding of what makes this golf course amazing, and he's obviously had some success here, so he wasn't going to come in and do a bunch of changes."
Away from golf, Scheffler was recently recognized as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2026, an honor he views through the lens of responsibility.
"Yeah, I'd much rather try to be a positive influence than a negative one," he said. "I think if you do things the right way, and I feel like I can have some sort of influence over people, and being on the other side of things, I dreamed of growing up and being a professional golfer, and being able to achieve my dreams."
Scheffler won this event in 2024 immediately after capturing his second green jacket, making his return to Hilton Head particularly meaningful. While his opening round wasn't flawless, it demonstrated the consistency that has made him the game's top-ranked player.
With three rounds remaining at Harbour Town, Scheffler will look to improve his driving accuracy while continuing to rely on the short game excellence that kept him competitive despite his early struggles. The gap to the lead is manageable, setting up what could be another compelling weekend for the world's best player.